


The Ballad of Lord John and Lord Harry

by melannen



Category: Dresden Files - Jim Butcher, English and Scottish Popular Ballads - Francis James Child
Genre: Ballads, Book 1: Storm Front, Book 2: Fool Moon, Filk, Poetry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-09-15
Updated: 2011-09-15
Packaged: 2017-10-23 18:49:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/253730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melannen/pseuds/melannen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is some fragmentary pieces of a traditional ballad recorded a century or so ago on the fringes of the Chicagolands. It's clearly related to the myth cycle called "the Matter of Chicago", but it seems to carry the relationship in a different direction, and may be based on different source material, including bits incorporated from unrelated traditional ballads.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chicagoland Ballads #150  'The Ballad of Lord John and Lord Harry'

**Author's Note:**

> From a dresden_kink prompt that requested a Robin Hood crossover. I ended up writing a Child Ballads filk instead. Um. Ooops?

There was a great wizard and Harry his name,  
[With a down, derry down, derry down--]  
He was strong, and tall, and true;  
He was slender and brave as his oaken stave  
And a friend to all he knew.

There were none to compare in Council or Courts,  
And none in Chicago Town;  
And he fought at the right of the Lord's own Knight,  
And his equal in renown.

The man who was known as the Baron of Thieves,  
Noble by troth if not blood,  
To Harry went with a good intent  
And truthful before him stood.

To Harry he gazed with his money-green eyes  
When he'd nothing else to say;  
And his heart he stole, and a tiger soul,  
Till he pulled himself away.

"Oh court me not, Johnny," said Harry,  
"You're naught but an outlaw and thief;  
"But it's honor I need, and the honorable deed,  
"For my dowry is nothing but grief."

"I've known of honor," the Baron replied,  
"I find it an uncertain coin.  
"But go if you must with your strength of the just;  
"Weak is an unwilling join."

The Baron was feasting with his merry men  
When the wine in their goblets shook.  
Harry stood there, wreathed in fiery air,  
And called him out for a crook.

"Thou'st stolen from me, oh thou scumbag!  
"A treasure that carries my death:  
"Return what is mine and shall never be thine  
"Or pray God with thy last breath."

"Nothing I've stolen from thee, my dear Harry.  
"Indeed I would not see thee harmed.  
"Share our feast and stay here in peace  
"For I warn you my men are all armed."

"If thou wouldst not harm me, Lord Johnny,  
"Thy man has been false to thee."  
"Then show me the one and what's just will be done  
"A traitor earns death as his fee."

A baron of thieves was Lord Johnny,  
His honor at odds with the law;  
But to Harry he knew he could not be untrue  
Though Harry should turn from his all.


	2. Chicagoland Ballads #150a  "Lord Johnny and the Wolves"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This second, slightly longer ballad fragment about Lord John and Lord Harry seems to be mostly a reworking of an older folklore story about werewolves, but that sort of incorporation of existing narratives into an ongoing hero-cycle is fairly common.

"Come to the greenwood with me, my Lord Harry;  
"Come and be merry with me.  
"Your purse is full poor, there are wolves at your door;  
"With my men your life will be free."

"To your greenwood I never will go, Johnny,  
"For blood money's worse than the grave,  
"Though it be double; your wolves are no trouble;  
"But outlawed? I'd lief be a slave."

Day and night Lord Harry hunted,  
Howling of wolves on his trail;  
His strength was gone, his battle long,  
And rod and staff may fail.

He sat in blood and fear and pain.  
The wolves were circling near.  
"I've found you in time," sang the Lord of Crime.  
"Need you help, my dear?"

"Give your troth, I'll grant my aid.  
"My merry men wait for my word."  
"I'll not be merry with thee," vowed Harry,  
"Though menaced by claw or by sword."

"Help from thee? Never!" said Harry,  
"Though - possibly - this once - I might--"  
A snarl at the door and he need say no more  
As the wolves leapt to the fight.

Johnny stood strong, loosing shot after shot,  
And Hendricks, his man, held their ground;  
The wolves turned tail, but when they had prevailed,  
Lord Harry could nowhere be found.

He came to the greenwood, battered and torn,  
Dragging a Sheriff's man.  
"I know your mind's the twisted kind,  
"But was this in your plan?"

"Harry, Harry, what are you doing?  
"Do let that poor man go.  
The sheriff's men are here as friends,  
"While you just work me woe."

"Oh John, how simply you've been fooled!  
"No sheriff's friend to you.  
"Not your allies, but wolves in disguise  
"Their every word untrue."

"But Harry, thou'st wished ill to me,  
"And shall I trust thy nod?  
"I quite think no; now let him go  
"And drop thy staff and rod."

"He's truer to thee than thou knowest,  
"My o-so-clever thief."  
With snarling snout the wolves leapt out  
The Sheriff's man their chief.

"You know I told you--" Harry said.  
"Don't finish that, I pray."  
Full well they fought with fire and shot  
But could not win the day.

Lord Harry's thrown into a pit  
Below a net of rope;  
The trap was sprung, Lord John there hung,  
And in the pit all hope.

"O Johnny, drop a rope to me!  
"They've wrapped you all about.  
"And on your life you'll have a knife--  
"You never go without."

"Our captors took my knife away.  
"I'm trapped as sure as you.  
"The wolf will come, our lives are done-  
"'Tis lucky I have two."

Lord John, he sliced that rope so clean;  
The wolf leapt for his head.  
With no more time Lord Harry climbed  
A savage chase he led.

The moon rose large, the greenwood howled,  
Lord John spun slowly round.  
"Thinkest thou I would let thee die?"  
Cried Harry from firm ground.

He bent to cut the anchor rope  
And set poor Johnny free.  
But from the black cruel eyes stared back:  
"The pit! The pit! Harry!"


End file.
